Courts have generally been reluctant to allow parties to file anonymously – even when it might seem reasonable to us to allow them to do. As a recent example: the actress who tried to anonymously sue IMDB and Amazon for “outing” her real age was told she could either file non-anonymously or drop her suit.

When “Does” are being sued, you’d think – or hope – that the court would allow them to move to quash subpoenas anonymously to protect their anonymity – at least in the early stages. And that’s how one case started out. But D.C. District Court magistrate John M. Facciola apparently had second thoughts and issued an order saying that if defendants wanted to move to quash, they’d have to do so under their names, which would be available in the public docket.